What entertainment should do in a world filled with depression

-What made you decide to star in the play “Change the World” as one of SOPHIA’s activities for their 30th anniversary year?

SOPHIA – Mitsuru Matsuoka

Mitsuru Matsuoka (hereinafter, the same) 

From around my 30s, I started to face life more and more as I dealt with the illness and death of people close to me, and I naturally started to think about my own life. The reason for SOPHIA’s hiatus was the same; we had been active for so long and had been going at it so fast that each member began to feel that they should have time to think about their own lives and try something new.

Fortunately, the band was able to get back together, but as an artist, I feel that as I live out the time I have left, the time when I was willing to “challenge anything for the future,” like when I first debuted, is long gone.

This year in particular, I wanted to place emphasis on the 30th anniversary, so I wasn’t thinking about doing anything other than a band, such as a stage play, but the production team of “Change the World” was very enthusiastic about me wanting to hear my story. And then I met with (scriptwriter) Hata (Kenhiko)-sensei. Before meeting her, I read the original work, and I saw something in common between SOPHIA’s first new song in 10 years, “The Melancholy of the World You Face Every Day,” and “Change the World.” Hata-sensei also said, “This song is in common with what I want to convey in this novel, so I want to make it the theme song.” I felt like I wanted to create this stage play together.

–Is there anything in the message of the story that resonates with what you want to express as SOPHIA now?

That’s right. For example… today, you interviewed me, and an article about SOPHIA’s 30th anniversary appeared as an online news article. If you scroll the screen horizontally, there is news about the Gaza invasion, and on the other hand, there is a topic about the covert intervention in the currency market. In the advertisement next to it, an influencer is dancing and appealing something… In this way, everyone is living their own small world to the fullest, but it is not a common world.

But they all exist in the same way in this world, in the “now”. When I think about the younger generation who will live in the future, I can’t help but think about that world. There is a lot of melancholy in many places in this world. That’s why I think entertainment has to convey messages that encourage people to look forward. I’m sure everyone is having a hard time right now. Everyone is struggling with pain in their lives and dragging around heavy burdens.

So, as a presence on the fringes of Japanese entertainment, we don’t want to assert, “This is what SOPHIA is like,” but rather, we want to provide works that lighten people’s hearts a little, make them want to look up and feel the sunlight, and help them to look forward. I think that will be the significance of our activities for our 30th anniversary.

–That’s something you can say so clearly now, after 30 years of activity.

When I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, I couldn’t say “for the sake of others” because it seemed hypocritical. But in the end, it turns out to be for my own benefit. When I see the smiles of people who say, “This song is what gives me the strength to do my best,” or “Thank you for your work,” I feel like I can gain the courage to take another step forward.